CONWAY — Life was pretty good while Conway High School student Jarrett Hoover was vacationing in Jamaica in June with his family, but then it got even better.
As he was relaxing in the hotel room, he checked his ACT composite score online and saw that he’d made a perfect 36.
Jarrett said he was “stunned.”
His mother, Shari Hoover, and twin brother, Cole, were looking at Jarrett’s scores, too.
“We were silent for 15 to 20 seconds; we didn’t know what to do,” Jarrett said. They went to find his dad, Dean, and give him the good news.
“We were laughing like we really couldn’t believe it,” Jarrett said.
Ed Colby, senior director for media and public relations at ACT, said only 1/10 of 1 percent of students in the nation who take the ACT earn a 36 composite score.
It was Jarrett’s fifth time to take the test. He was motivated by a little sibling rivalry, he said.
“Honestly, I had a 33, and my brother had a 34, so I was kind of taking it to try to tie him or …,” Jarrett said. He didn’t finish his sentence; it was understood.
Jarrett said he and his brother are good friends, but they’re still competitive.
“We test very similar. We have almost all the same grades, basically,” Jarrett said.
Jarrett, who will be a senior in the fall, said math is his favorite subject.
“It’s just always clicked for me,” he said.
Jarrett said he’s excited to tell two of his teachers — Shiloh Harder, calculus, and William Richardson, Advanced Placement U.S. history — about his score.
Richardson said he had the Hoover brothers in the same class.
“Both are excellent students,” Richardson said.
When told that Jarrett made a 36 on his ACT, Richardson was happy but not surprised.
“He’s a fantastic student, worked extremely hard in class, gave a total effort on all his writing assignments; basically, he’s a perfectionist,” Richardson said.
He said Jarrett also scored a perfect 5 on the AP exam in U.S. history.
Jarrett said his and his brother’s success is a result of a combination of hard work and genes.
“We’re both pretty hardworking in school, and I think that’s one of the reasons we do so well,” he said.
The teenager said his parents have never had to hound him and his brother about studying or doing homework.
“They’re supportive and really proud of us,” he said.
Shari Hoover said she is definitely proud.
“I am so glad [their ACT scores] are so close because it would be very hard if one had a 36 and the other a 20,” she said. “We just feel so blessed.”
She said Cole has considered taking the ACT again to try to match Jarrett’s score, but hasn’t decided for sure.
Hoover said although she might be a little biased, she thinks her twins are “pretty well-rounded” because they also excel in athletics, not just academics.
That seems to be a fair assessment.
Jarrett plays soccer and is on the high school football team, where he’s a wide receiver. He also runs track, where he competes in triple jump — his favorite event — high jump and runs the 100. Cole plays football and soccer.
“I told my football coaches [about the perfect ACT score],” Jarrett said. “They were pretty stunned, too. They don’t think they’ve ever had a football player with a 36.”
Wampus Cat football coach Clint Ashcraft described the Hoover twins as “good kids; very quiet.” He commended both players’ scores.
Jarrett’s perfect score is a reflection of the student-athlete’s typical hard work in everything he does, Ashcraft said.
“That’s what’s great about it. He not only plays football; he also ran track and played soccer. It just goes to show if you’re dedicated and have your priorities in line, you can be great at more than one thing; that’s what’s impressive to me,” Ashcraft said. “It’s just impressive he’s done so much and done so well.”
Jarrett is also a member of Caring Cats, the Future Business Leaders of America and the National Honor Society.
Although he has another year of high school, Jarrett said he plans to attend the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
“I’ve always liked [electrical] engineering, and they have a good program up there,” he said. Jarrett said he’ll be following in the footsteps of his dad, who has an engineering degree and works for Koontz Electric in Morrilton.
Jarrett’s advice for others wanting to ace the ACT seems obvious, but it isn’t.
“A lot of people, honestly, don’t study at all. I didn’t study a whole lot, but definitely the week leading up, don’t put it off; study a little bit, review,” he said.
And it doesn’t hurt to have a smart sibling for added motivation.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.